Friday 19 August 2005

Pic of the day: Yeah, one of the now very rare pictures of me, here wearing the new Plantronics Headset that I got today. Just from a glance at the picture, it should also be obvious why there aren't more portraits of me anymore. It's amazing that I should turn so ugly so fast. In this picture I look a lot like my mother did at 70, except I'm obviously male. Anyway, the point of the picture is to prove that I don't actually chew on my microphones.

Plan(tronics) B

When dictating, I use headsets from Plantronics. Their microphone is better than any other I have tried. But this comes at a price, and I am not just talking about the price in dollars. For some obscure reason, three of the four headsets I have bought all stopped working in 3-4 months. In each case, it was the microphone that simply did not register sound anymore. (In the fourth, one of the earphones keeps falling off, but the microphone has not been used long enough to stop working yet. I have mainly used it when the others were being repaired; it is it cheaper model. They gave me this because I did not have the receipt but they remembered selling me the first one and replacing it after three months.)

Just in case you read this before your morning coffee, let me spell it out: When you buy a Plantronics headset, keep the receipt. And be sure to know where you keep it. Because if your headsets are anything like mine, they will break after around three months. But as long as you can get a new one for free, it is well worth it. Because they are really good.

The last one to break was their DSP 500 Ultimate Performance Headset. My shop did not have a replacement headset in stock, so I have been without it for a few days. It sure feels good to have it back. The one cloud on the horizon is that three months from now, it is November. Or rather the month formally known as November. For the last three years it has been called NaNoWriMo...